Podcast: A Memory of Blood; Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire by Donald Carrick

On the 29th October 2015, Donald Carrick gave the third of three talks on the life and legacies of Ghengis Khan.  Donald tells us: Stories are everything. Many stories are influenced by history, but could it be that history itself is shaped by stories, even fictional ones? Can we honestly say only fact matters in any historical narrative? Is the past set in stone or is it a fluid entity like the future? Read more…

Podcast: Singing The Law and Riding The City; The Story of Ghengis Khan by Donald Carrick

Donald Carrick takes us through a history of Ghengis Khan and raises questions about how we read history. He confers what we know about Ghengis Khan as a series of stories which we repeat to ourselves, and invites the listener to treat them as such. Talking about one of the biggest empires ever, Donald communicates some insights as to how this could have come about. Read more…

Podcast: Temujin Rising; How a Slave Would Change World History By Donald Carrick

In June 2015, Donald Carrick gave his talk ‘Temujin Rising: How a Slave Would Change World History’ at The Counting House. Almost everyone has heard of Genghis Khan, but what do you really know about him? In all likelihood if you know anything you know about his conquests and wars, about the huge numbers of people he killed, or about the huge numbers he fathered. None of this is wrong but it isn’t the whole story, life is never this simple.
He was a slave, his mother was kidnapped when he was a child. Later his first wife would be kidnapped. He would forge a deep friendship with the man he would eventually face in battle. He would through a combination of determination, genius and ruthlessness rise to power but he wasn’t a man driven by a lust to conquer alone. He was driven by a desire to change the world, not simply to rule it. He was also a monster who slaughtered his enemies without mercy. Read more…

29th Oct 2015: A Memory of Blood; Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire by Donald Carrick

Mongol Empire

Come along to The Counting House at 7pm to listen to Donald, share some food, and learn about the Mongolian Empire…

 

Title of Talk:

A Memory of Blood: Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire

Bullet Points of What You Would Like to Talk About:

  • The myriad narratives that could describe the aftermath of the rule of Genghis Khan
  • The conflict between those narratives, as real life does not conform to narrative and thus to the way we understand life. The inherent contradictions this illuminates in the human mind and our conceptions of the reality.
  • The fall of the Mongolian Empire after the death of Genghis Khan and the conflict between his children.
  • The conflict between our ingrained narrative thinking and the shape of the modern world. The dangers this poses to our sense of self and reality if not addressed.
  • The question of how history can be made use of in our conception of the current and future stories of reality we inhabit.

Read more…